Henrietta Lovell is known around the world as Rare Tea Lady. She is the founder and Managing Director to the award-winning, global brand Rare Tea Co. Rare Tea Company was founded in 2004.

Henrietta is at the forefront of the tea revolution - replacing industrial grade bags with the highest quality leaves. She works with chefs and sommeliers to pair flavours and created bespoke blends for some of the best restaurants in the world including Noma in Copenhagen, Momofuku in New York and Claridge’s in the UK. Rare Tea Company retails globally from Waitrose to China. Henrietta travels the world working directly with small independent tea gardens from the Shire Highlands of Malawi to the foothills of the Himalayas. By sourcing direct from the farms she is able to secure unique harvests and ensure that they are crafted using sustainable practices to benefit both the land and the people who live on it.

As an advocate for flavour Henrietta is ceaselessly adventuring and collaborating.

Anna Hamilos, Rare Charity Director

RAre charity director: anna hamilos

With more than 15 years experience working on social-purpose projects, managing multiple stakeholders, tight deadlines and sometimes even tighter budgets Anna is now the Director of Rare Charity. As Business Director of somewhereto_ — a nationwide service that helped 16-25 year olds find ways of expressing their talents — Anna was responsible for one of the largest investment programs ever funded by the Big Lottery. Raising £7m in direct funding from the Big Lottery, as well as managing a £4.4m grant, and further investment from the Innovation Fund at Nesta. Anna led a 50-strong team across the country, engaging more than 200,000 young people to support their ideas and build connections with local businesses and communities.

While in India in 2015 Anna worked in Hyderabad with _SocialStarters. Anna's passion and commitment to working with young people, women and disadvantaged communities was reignited. Recognising the power and importance of working with a global charity to create lasting social impact within the local community.

Trustees

Cecillia Makonyola

Rare charity trustee: cecillia makonyola

Cecillia is a governance specialist with a particular focus on issues of accountability and transparency from a gender and youth perspective. She started her career as a local governance practitioner in the UK, where she worked on innovative economic development projects and supported senior politicians. She went on to implement institutional capacity building for local governments, providing training and technical assistance to central and local government politicians and practitioners across the Commonwealth. After five years working directly in a Political context she moved to the demand side of governance, developing programmes on citizen-led accountability, active citizenship and natural resource governance. She is now based in Lilongwe, as the Regional Governance Lead for Oxfam’s programmes in Southern Africa.

Cecillia has an MSc in Gender, Development and Globalisation from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a BA in English and Politics from The University of Leicester.

Emilia Keladitis

Rare charity trustee: emilia keladitis

Emilia has worked in the financial services sector for almost 20 years, in corporate finance and risk management. For the last decade, she has focused on the real estate sector, managing investments and raising capital from both institutional and private investors. She now runs her own business, invested in the property and hospitality sectors.

Emilia grew up in Botswana and retains close ties to the African continent. She has supported a number of non-profit organisations focused on education, empowerment of people and supporters of small business enterprise. She is the daughter of a self-made entrepreneur whose priority was to give his children a leading education, and he did. Emilia believes that the education she received change the path of her life and she is passionate about offering others the same opportunity.

Will le Fleming

rare charity trustee: will le fleming

Will is Assistant Head, Director of Senior School at St Paul’s Girls’ School in London. He has overall responsibility for the progress and welfare of around 230 girls in the top two years of school (16-18), and for university admissions. His passions in education are supporting the deep engagement and learning opportunity of 16+ study, and widening access to education for students from all backgrounds. He has spent seven years in teaching; prior to that he worked in education in museums and palaces, such as the Tower of London and Hampton Court. Alongside teaching he is a writer: his first novel, Central Reservation, was published in 2011.